Thoracic Outlet Syndrome: Historical Aspects of Anatomy and Physiology

Konstantinos Gkarsioudis, Eftychios Papagrigorakis, Panagiotis Skandalakis, Dimitrios Filippou

Throughout the years complexes of symptoms of the upper extremity, caused by compression, were to be explained. Pain, paresthesia, edema, ischemia and motor dysfunction of the arm was and still is a diagnostic problem. From the start many separated syndromes have been developed in order to explain the patient’s problems which at the end came they all together to a nosological entity, the thoracic outlet compression syndrome (TOS). This paper reviews the evolution of the syndromes throughout the years and the historical landmarks that formed this multifactorial problem as we understand it today.